Does Anybody Like You?
At a basketball game, Doug's son Ryan watched parents approach his dad with concerns about their kids not making teams or getting opportunities. Young Ryan turned to his father and asked, simply, 'Dad, does anybody like you?' Doug used the moment as a teaching opportunity. He explained: in a school of 1,800 students, only five from each grade would start. Every student is awesome and equal — they just are. But the system can't give every student every opportunity, and absorbing that gap between what students deserve and what systems can provide is one of the hidden burdens of school leadership.
Key Lessons
- • Not every problem a leader faces has a solution.
- • Empathy without the ability to fix things is still empathy worth offering.
- • Kids remember how they were treated far longer than they remember the outcome.
Community Connections
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Related Quotes
(4)"All the kids are awesome and equal — they just are."
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More from Doug Webb
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The 5 A.M. Doorbell
As a 10-year-old paperboy in Lehi, Doug Webb was late delivering a Sunday paper. The homeowner — someone Doug admired deeply — let his father know. The next week, Doug overcorrected in a very 10-year-old way: he rang the doorbell at 5:00 a.m. to prove the paper had arrived on time. When confronted, he panicked and denied it — but his dad pointed out the obvious. Decades later, Doug taught that family's grandchildren at Lehi High. During difficult years of school growth and construction, that family supported him and told others: 'Doug's working on it. We're okay.' The circle closed across two generations.
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Everything But a Backpack Day
Students at Lehi High approached Principal Webb and proposed an 'Everything But a Backpack Day.' Doug approved it without fully imagining the creative possibilities. The night before, his own kids asked to borrow the old microwave and crockpot. He didn't connect the dots. The next morning, students arrived with garbage cans, crockpots, microwaves, dogs, and younger siblings to carry their books. Administration huddled and reached a unanimous conclusion: the students had won. At graduation, Doug acknowledged it publicly: 'Chalk one up for the students — they beat us that day.'
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Four Years of Construction at Lehi High
For four consecutive years, Lehi High School was a construction zone. The design-build reconstruction — constrained by a tight campus footprint — required creative collaboration between teachers, administrators, architects from Naylor Wentworth, and the Alpine School District. Neighbors across the street endured years of dust and mud with patience. Doug describes the experience as unexpectedly joyful, despite its difficulty. 'I wouldn't change that for the world. Everyone was so good to work with.' The result was a compact but beautiful modern campus — built by a community that showed up.
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At a child safety checkpoint in 2021, Charlene helped a family with six children in a seven-seat minivan. One child was on a secured wooden box. The family had daisy-chained lap extender belts through the outer car seats. Charlene and another technician spent over an hour arranging new seats, only to learn the mother was pregnant and needed room for a newborn. They had to start over completely. The experience became a career turning point.
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Charlene's son was born with needs requiring surgeries. A nurse with child passenger safety training helped her family during the car seat oxygen test. Exactly 12 years later, Charlene began working with Intermountain at Utah Valley Hospital — on the exact anniversary of her son's discharge. Looking at her badge, she thought: 'I'm back, but this time I'm helping people here.'
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Grief Turned Into Safety Work
Charlene mentions a man in his 50s who became involved in child passenger safety after losing his daughter in a car accident. He used his grief constructively, becoming a volunteer for Zero Fatalities and eventually a certified CPST. He's also trilingual, making him an invaluable resource for families facing language barriers.